Discourses and Strategies

This book consists of essays on the Vienna Schools impact on Central European art history, Walter Benjamins move from transhistoricism to historical relativism, Jacob Burckhardts legacy and its metamorphoses, two competing conceptions of the social history of art, and Ernst Gombrichs life long struggle against metaphysics. All share a common denominator: concern with the trajectories of art historical ideas and their ideological instrumentality. However, the authors aim in analysing the premises and intentions of art historical discourse is not to undermine the credibility of art history by reducing it to total epistemological relativism. The historiography of art historical theories and critical reflection on their ideological background is understood by the author as an auxiliary art historical subdiscipline.